
Weekend Preview: World Rowing Tour Starts, Head Races Begin
For the third time in history, Ontario will host the World Rowing Tour when the 2022 Bays and Islands tour kicks off on Sunday in Southeastern Ontario. Two head races will also take place this weekend signalling the unofficial start of the fall rowing season, while Masters competitors from around the world will gather in Libourne, France for the 2022 World Rowing Masters Regatta.
The 50 participants in the World Rowing Tour will row from Sept. 11-17 and they’ll start on Sunday by rowing through the Murray Canal and into the Bay of Quinte. By the end of the third day they’ll reach the east end of the Bay and rest for a day before launching from the Kingston Rowing Club on Sept. 15 and heading east from there. The fourth day on the water will see the crews head to Gananoque, and the fifth day will see them take a bit of a circular route to see as many of the spectacular Thousand Islands as possible. They’ll reach the end of the tour on their sixth day on the water.
A total of 12 countries will be represented in the tour, as participants from Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the USA will all take part. The World Rowing Tour is being organized by members of Ontario Adventure Rowing.
Elsewhere in the province, the Muskoka Fall Classic and Head of the Madawaska will run on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The Muskoka Fall Classic is hosted by the Georgian Bay Rowing Club from Gull Lake Rotary Park in Gravenhurst, Ont., while the Head of the Madawaska will be hosted by the Burnstown Rowing Club on the beautiful Madawaska River. Both head races are 3km long.
The Muskoka Fall Classic was one of the first regatta’s to be held in Ontario last year after inter-club regattas were paused during the pandemic, while the Head of the Madawaska will return for the first time since 2019.
Beginning today, the 2022 World Rowing Masters Regatta will run from Sept. 7-11. The competitors will race in Dageueys Lake in the heart of Libourne. The waterway is one of the top training venues in Europe and hosts the Libourne International Rowing Regatta annually. The French Rowing Championships has also been hosted on Dagueys Lake four times since 2015. Several Ontario clubs will be represented at the event including Don Rowing Club, London Western Rowing Club, and Ridley Graduate Boat Club.
For more information on World Rowing Tour, visit https://worldrowingtour2022.ca/.
For more information on the Muskoka Fall Classic, visit, RegattaCentral.
For more information on the Head of the Madawaska, visit RegattaCentral.
For more information on the World Rowing Masters Regatta, visit World Rowing.
For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.